Google Semantics Surfacing
January 8, 2009
ReadWriteWeb.com (January 6, 2009) ran an interesting article that tiptoes around Google’s semantic activities. You will want to read “Did Google Just Expose Semantic Data in Search Results”. Google won’t answer the question, of course. But the addled goose will, “Yep, where have you been since early 2007?” Let me point out that Marshall Kirkpatrick has done a good job of tracking down “in the wild” examples of Google’s machine-based semantic methods. These examples (and others in Google open source documents) make it clear that the semantic activities are chugging along and maturing nicely. “Semantics” as used in this write up means “figuring out what something is about.” Once one knows the “about” part of an information object, then other methods can hook these “about” metadata together. If you want to get a sense of the scope of the Google semantic system, click here. I have a checking copy of the report I wrote for BearStearns before that outfit went up in flames or down the drain. (Pick your metaphor.) My write up here does not include the detail that is in the full discussion in Google Version 2.0 here. But this draft provides some meat for the “in the wild” examples found in Mr. Kirkpatrick’s good article. How significant is the investment in semantics at Google? You can find some color on the sweep of Google’s semantic activities in the dataspace white paper Sue Feldman and I wrote (September 2008). You can get this report from IDC; it is report number 213562.
Let me close with three observations:
- Google is deeply involved in semantics, but with a Googley twist. Watching for examples in the wild is a very useful activity, especially for competitors
- The notion of semantics is sufficiently broad to embrace metadata generation and new types of metadata so that new types of data constructs can be automatically generated by Google. Think publishing new constructs for money.
- The competitors chasing Google face the increasingly likely prospect that Google has jumped over its own present position and will land even farther ahead of the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. Yahoo. Forget them. The smart Yahooligans are either at Google or surfing on Google.
Now I expect some push back from the anti Google crowd. Have at it. Just make sure you have internalized Google’s technical papers, Google “talks”, and the patent documentation. This goose is not too interested in uninformed challenges. You can read more about Google semantics and in my forthcoming Google and Publishing study from my trusty publisher Infonortics Ltd. located near Oxford, England, in the spring.
Stephen Arnold, January 8, 2009
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